Victory Is Just Around the Corners!

A new deck design is emerging that attempts to harness the strengths of the many powerful Legendary Pokémon cards that have been revealed in the Black & White series. It’s called “6 Corners,” and its goal is to work as a counter for other popular decks making the rounds. What makes this deck interesting, too, is that the key Pokémon are all Basic Pokémon, giving players more space in their decks to be creative with the Trainer cards they choose to include.

Up to the Challenge

Before taking a look at the 6 Corners deck, it’s important to note that this is not an easy deck to play. In many cases, if you don’t know in advance what kind of deck you’re playing against, it requires you to make snap judgments early in a match as to which Pokémon you’ll face. Also, unlike most decks, which concentrate your Pokémon selection to a certain Energy type, the 6 Corners deck includes Pokémon that depend on many different Energy types. Most of the Pokémon you’ll be using have high retreat costs, which can magnify bad decisions when you choose the wrong one as your Active Pokémon. That said, the 6 Corners deck is also very flexible, giving you the tools to compete against a wide variety of popular decks.

Confronting the Opposition

The 6 Corners deck begins with a short list of critical Pokémon: Virizion (Black & White—Noble Victories, 97/101), Kyurem (Black & White—Noble Victories, 34/101), Terrakion (Black & White—Noble Victories, 99/101), and Shaymin (HS—Unleashed, 8/96). Until the advent of this deck, Virizion has not been a popular choice for deck builders largely due to its Fire-type Weakness, which makes it vulnerable to Reshiram. But the extra card drawing from its Double Draw attack will help out early in your match, and Leaf Wallop is a fairly cheap way to knock out weaker Pokémon like Tynamo, Solosis, and any Baby Pokémon you’ll see. The second-turn 80-damage hit that Leaf Wallop delivers is pretty nice, too. Kyurem and Terrakion are counters for Reshiram and Zekrom, with potent attacks matching up against their Weaknesses. (Terrakion is also good against Eelektrik and Magnezone, two popular card-drawing Pokémon that also happen to be weak against Fighting types.)

Finally, Shaymin is necessary for its Celebration Wind Poké-Power, which lets you shuffle Energy around among your Pokémon when it comes into play. It can’t be overstated how valuable this Poké-Power is, given the wide variety of Energy requirements in this deck. This is another place where the 6 Corners deck gets difficult: knowing when and how to play Shaymin correctly is key to winning. You have to have a clear picture of all the action: what Pokémon both you and your opponent have in play, what Energy you have on the board, and what Energy is in your hand.

There are several other Pokémon to consider for inclusion in this deck, largely based on the types of Pokémon you expect to face. You probably won’t want to include them all; this deck is complicated enough, and you need plenty of room for Trainer cards. Against Kyurem, Cobalion (Black & White—Noble Victories, 100/101) is a choice attacker, capable of doing 160 damage with its Iron Breaker attack. On the flip side, because Cobalion is so great against Kyurem, you should probably have something to counter it. Reshiram (Black & White, 113/114) is an obvious choice considering Cobalion’s Weakness to Fire-type Pokémon. But take a look at Victini (Black & White—Noble Victories, 15/101) instead, whose V-Create attack is powerful and cheap, and its requirement that you have five Pokémon on your Bench is easy to meet with all the Basic Pokémon in this deck. You could also consider including Zekrom (Black & White, 114/114), but only if you expect to encounter Tornadus—otherwise its Outrage attack is redundant with the Kyurem you already have.

Focused Support

As mentioned earlier, there are two major concerns when deciding which non-Pokémon cards to add: the variety of Energy required for the various attacks, and the ability to move your Pokémon around to create favorable matchups. It should come as no surprise, then, that most decks play with 4 Pokémon Catcher (Black & White—Emerging Powers, 95/98) and 4 Switch (Black & White, 104/114) Trainer cards. Seeker (HS—Triumphant, 88/103) and Super Scoop Up (Black & White, 103/114) can also help you arrange the board in your favor.

If you guessed that this deck relied on Rainbow Energy (HeartGold & SoulSilver, 104/116), you’d be spot on. But that card comes with its own issues, because a lot of Energy-gathering cards such as Energy Search (Black & White, 93/114) let you get only Basic Energy from your deck. Replacing your whole hand with Professor Juniper (Black & White, 101/114) and Professor Oak’s New Theory (Call of Legends, 83/95) might be better ways to find the Energy you need. (This is another reason Virizion’s Double Draw attack is a wise choice.)

One last card that really puts the pressure on your opponent is Eviolite (Black & White—Noble Victories, 91/101), a perfect addition to a deck that features exclusively Basic Pokémon. With their high HP, most of your Pokémon will be tough to take out anyway, but Eviolite makes it that much harder for your opponent to claim Prize Cards.

The 6 Corners deck is a challenging deck to play, but one that offers incredible reward when played right. It’s also a deck that no two people will play the same way, with tons of optional Pokémon and all kinds of room for various combinations of Trainer cards. Put your own twist on 6 Corners and you could find yourself dominating your next Pokémon TCG tournament!

Take a look at a sample 6 Corners deck from a receent City Championship event: